Teenagers stabbed to death

Two teenage boys have died and two men are fighting for their lives after four knife incidents.

Sixteen-year-old Conor James Black was stabbed to death after attending a party in Manchester on Friday. And a 17-year-old boy of Sri Lankan origin died from neck wounds after fighting erupted between eight youths in Croydon, south London, yesterday. A man has been arrested in connection with the London stabbing. The victim is the 23rd teenager to be fatally stabbed or shot in the capital this year.

Two men are in a critical condition after separate attacks yesterday. A 26-year-old was assaulted in Bolton by two men, and a 25-year-old attacked in Cheshire.

The attacks happened as a senior doctor warned about the rise in knife crime. Dr John Heyworth, an A&E consultant and spokesman for the College of Emergency Medicine in London, said: "Across the country doctors in emergency medicine will tell you knife crime has got out of hand.

"We are depressed and distressed at the rise in violent crime, and we would welcome anything that raises the profile about this growing epidemic."